ASU's goal to play faster at Tennessee

JONESBORO -- Blake Anderson has been to Neyland Stadium twice, but he's been given enough of a sample to know what his Arkansas State football team is walking into Saturday morning in Knoxville, Tenn.

ASU's first-year coach was there in 2002 when he was an assistant at Middle Tennessee in a 26-3 loss to Tennessee, and in 2007 he was a Louisiana-Lafayette assistant in a 59-7 loss.

ARKANSAS STATE AT TENNESSEE

WHEN 11 a.m. Central Saturday

WHERE Neyland Stadium, Knoxville, Tenn.

RECORDS Arkansas State: 1-0, Tennessee: 1-0

COACHES Arkansas State: Blake Anderson (1-0 in first season at ASU and overall); Tennessee: Butch Jones (6-7 in second season at Tennessee; 56-34 in eighth season overall)

TV SEC Network

INTERNET astateredwolves.com

RADIO KFIN-FM, 107.9 in Jonesboro; KKSP-FM, 93.3, in Bryant/Little Rock

He'll return to the hostile environment at 11 a.m. Saturday when ASU plays Tennessee in a game that will likely be played in front of more than 100,000 people.

"That's what Saturday football is supposed to be like," Anderson said. "It'll be awesome."

Anderson's optimism isn't surprising, considering it shines through when discussing most subjects regarding the Red Wolves. But it's present this time because of what Anderson describes as a style of play that he hopes will neutralize his team's disadvantages in talent and atmosphere.

Anderson brought an up-tempo, no-huddle offense with him to ASU that he began running more than a decade ago as an assistant at Middle Tennessee. The reasons he became married to the system were numerous, but one was to help teams in situations like the one ASU faces Saturday.

"We create chaos every day in practice," Anderson said. "The noise can always still be a factor. You get 110,000 people in a stadium and they're screaming, it's going to be loud. But it should not affect us in a way where we cannot operate. It's why we do what we do."

One of the most important cogs to ASU's offense is still being perfected

Anderson said he was pleased with the team's tempo during Saturday's 37-10 season-opening victory over Montana State, but offensive coordinator Walt Bell said he wasn't as encouraged. Bell said ASU went fast at times, like in its four touchdown drives that all took 1 minute, 7 seconds or less -- one covered only 15 yards -- and that quarterback Fredi Knighten regularly snapped the ball less than 10 seconds into the play clock on the first two drives.

At other times, Bell was left wanting more from an offense that ran 78 offensive plays.

"It wasn't nearly consistent enough," Bell said. "It may have looked fast at times, but it's not where we're going. It's got to be better than that."

Addressing tempo is one of Bell's top priorities this week.

"Let's get everybody good and tired and let's see who wants to play," Bell said. "Let's get out there in the deep end and see who wants to tread water for awhile.

"We want to make sure that we're fresh and fast, and hopefully that when we're in the back half of the second quarter and the back half of the fourth quarter, they're not in as good of shape and not in as clear of a mind because they're fatigued and we can execute at a higher level than them."

Tennessee Coach Butch Jones' offense runs an offense that goes up-tempo at times, too, but he said there is a little mystery in what ASU does.

"You've got to be ready for anything and everything," Jones said.

The Red Wolves will try to end a string of 11 consecutive losses against schools from the Power 5 conferences.

"There are going to be some dudes that we're just not going to match up very well with," Anderson said. "If we can get them breathing hard and make them play more of their two-deep, and we can really try to make it our style of football game, that's the way we take every football game, regardless of who we're playing."

Sports on 09/04/2014

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